Sometimes I wish we still lived in a time where people wrote letters. I think there is something beautiful about them. Love letters overseas, letters to family members after you've left home, letters to friends far away, letters kept you updated in each others lives. You didn't know when you would reunite, but until then you felt a connection with them still. until then, two words but they do so much. They end the letter and bring hope of reuniting.
So until then,
Amy.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Recently, I've been thinking a lot about what it means to be human. God created something so unique in us when he made us humans. Now, I could go on talking about this forever, but there are a few points I feel are important to share.

In Rob Bell's book, Sex God, he wrote a chapter called "Angels and Animals". He explains that we are neither angels nor animals. Animals are beings without souls, they are purely physical. Angels are beings with only souls, they are not physical. Humans are neither. We have souls and physicality. This may not seem like a revolutionary idea, but I think it brings up a good point. Why do we compare ourselves so often with these two beings? We can describe people as animals or we can say that people are trying to be angels. By acting purely based on our physical yearnings and wants, we are being animals, but by trying to fully deny our physical yearnings and wants, we are being angels. We aren't supposed to be either.

SO STOP.

It's like we see this s p e c t r u m of perfection with angels on one side, animals on the other, and us somewhere in the middle. As Christians we should try to move as far to the angel side in our lives as is possible right? No. I don't think so. We apologize for our humanity all the time. "Well, I'm only human..." As if that's a bad thing. God has enough angels.He wants humans. Now, I understand it is a struggle trying to figure out what being fully human as God intended us to be looks like. But if we put more energy into figuring that out and forget about trying to become an angel, I think we would be a lot better off.

"Nature obtains perfection, but man never does. There is a perfect ant, a perfect bee, but man is perpetually unfinished... It is this incurable unfinishedness which sets man apart from other living things. For, in the attempt to finish himself, man becomes a creator. Moreover, the incurable unfinishedness keeps man perpetually immature, perpetually capable of learning and growing."

-Eric Hoffer, Reflections on the Human Condition

I believe that God created something beautiful in humanity. Embrace it.